Category Archives: Art and design

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Talking bicycle security with author and blogger Rob Ainsley and Anthony Lau, architect and designer of the excellent Cycle Hoop that cheaply converts street furniture into cycle racks. Anthony is also soon to unveil a new car-shaped bicycle storage rack (pictured, above) at the London Festival of Architecture. Rob gives his verdict on the new double-decker bicycle storage racks at Waterloo Station.

Sustrans is the sustainable transportation charity and lobby group that pioneered the national cycle network. It is also one of the UK’s biggest commissioners of public art. Today’s show is devoted to one of Sustrans’s new Prospectives series, a handful of deliberately experimental projects that are more conceptual and investigative in nature than the more traditional kinds of public art you might find on the National Cycle Network.

Entitled Tranquility is a State of Mind, the project was conceived and led by Liminal, the duo of architect Frances Crow and sound artist and composer David Prior. They brought together clinical audiology, computational neuroscience and acoustics in a quest to understand more about the relationship between our sonic environment and personal wellbeing.

Can London ever be as good a cycling city as Berlin? Helen Pidd of the Guardian and Matt Tempest give their views. Artist Mila Lipowicz talks about East London Local(Eyes): an interactive video installation that recreates the feeling of riding a bike around East London. Katy Hallett of Sustrans on commissioning public art for the National Cycle Network. Plus a look ahead to the Dunwich Dynamo this coming 24-25 July.

David Kitchen, aka Velocio, set up the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed Forum almost three years ago. In a short time it has spawned an active and inventive cycling community and in the process the forum has grown to become the world’s eleventh most visited cycling website. David talks about the success of the forum and gives pointers for anyone thinking of using the web to bring cyclists together including how to bridge the online and offline worlds.

The Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra combine music, theatre, sculpture and bicycles with a sometimes chaotic and often subversive DIY ethic. Their debut album Nine Doors is out next month as a free/flexible price digital download. Band members David Birchall, Zeke Clough, Josh Kopecek, Huw Wahl talk about the sonic potential of the bicycle, improvisation and creating culture out of nothing. Read a review onEast London Lines of the Orchestra’s performance last week at Barden’s Boudoir. Upcoming live dates are on the Orchestra’s MySpace page.

This is the last show of the current season. The Bike Show returns to the airwaves on 5 May 2010.

The Bike Show moves into advocacy mode this week with guest in the studio Debra Rolfe, Campaigns Director of the Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC), Britain’s largest cycling organisation with 60,000+ members. Debra is spearheading the CTC’s new campaign against bad driving by motorists called Stop SMIDSY. The aim is to draw attention to the dangers of inattentive dangerous driving and the oh-so-familiar refrain ‘Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You’. We discuss the campaign and how cyclists can report near misses online.

Also in the show is a preview of 116 to Sea, an exhibition of photographs of the Dunwich Dynamo night ride by Joe McGorty. Joe is joined by Dunwich Dynamo godfather Patrick Field. And then there’s the second installment of Paul Fournel reading from Need for the Bike. Phew, all that in just half an hour!

Boris Johnson is London’s first cycling Mayor and he has put a ‘cycling revolution’ at the heart of his programme of government. As well as the Cycle Hire Scheme, Mayor Johnson has announced plans for what he has dubbed ‘cycle superhighways’. There will be twelve superhighways, each offering “safe, fast, direct routes to central London from the outer boroughs”. But there are growing concerns that the plans are being watered down. Continue reading →

Riding with Amy Fleuriot, a young British fashion designer who’s Cyclodelic range of clothing and accessories is offering women a more stylish alternative to the typically drab clothing sold to cyclists. This is the final show in the current season. Thanks for listening!